Kaisa's virtual bookshelf: June 2008

Sunday, June 29, 2008

The real truth, I am very sure, lies deeper

"I think I see the connection," said the priest. "This Glengyle was mad against the French Revolution. He was an enthusiast for the ancien regime, and was trying to re-enact literally the family life of the last Bourbons. He had snuff because it was the eighteenth century luxury; wax candles, because they were the eighteenth century lighting; the mechanical bits of iron represent the locksmith hobby of Louis XVI; the diamonds are for the Diamond Necklace of Marie Antoinette."

Both the other men were staring at him with round eyes. "What a perfectly extraordinary notion!" cried Flambeau. "Do you really think that is the truth?"

"I am perfectly sure it isn't," answered Father Brown, "only you said that nobody could connect snuff and diamonds and clockwork and candles. I give you that connection off-hand. The real truth, I am very sure, lies deeper."

G. K. Chesterton: The Innocence of Father Brown

Alarms and Discursions
All Things Considered
The Appetite of Tyranny Including Letters to an Old Garibaldian
Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens
The Ballad of the White Horse
The Ball and the Cross
The Barbarism of Berlin
The Club of Queer Trades
The Crimes of England
The Defendant
George Bernard Shaw
Greybeards at Play
Heretics
The Innocence of Father Brown
Magic A Fantastic Comedy
Manalive
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Man Who Was Thursday, a nightmare
A Miscellany of Men
The Napoleon of Notting Hill
The New Jerusalem
Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy
Robert Browning
A Short History of England
The Trees of Pride
Tremendous Trifles
Twelve Types
Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays
Varied Types
The Victorian Age in Literature
What's Wrong with the World
The Wild Knight and Other Poems
The Wisdom of Father Brown

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Konsti elää kauwwan

Konsti elää kauwwan : eli Tarpeellisia ja hyödyllisiä neuwoja ja Ojjennus-nuoria terweyden warjelemisexi ja saada elää isohon ikähän (1786)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Junisolen lyser öfver staden.

Junisolen lyser öfver staden. På det stora sandtorget växa präktiga grupper af frodiga kardborrar i blom. Lugn som ett isfält ligger sjön Jyväsjärvi och speglar i sin släta yta den kala stranden. Från fjerran svedjerök, tät, oljig. Det är vindstilla och mattblå himmel.

Gatorna med sina dels nya, dels halfförfallna hus stå nästan öde; kritade fönster och igenbommade dörrar tillkännagifva att egarne äro borta. Det är Jyväskylä i sommarskrud.

Här och der står en boddörr på glänt. I fönstren hänga prof på varorna: mörka dukar, randiga klädningstyger, ullgarn doftande af får, blanka knappar, speglar i messingsramar, lådor med russin och sviskon, stearinljus i blå omslag samt tuggtobak i rullar -- med ett ord allt hvad en rättskaffens Jyväskylä-medborgare nödtorfteligen behöfver för sitt dagliga uppehälle.

Daniel Sten: Bland ödebygder och skär. Berättelser från Finland (1884)

Hårda sinnen. (Östra Finland.) I ödemarken. (Vid Päjäne.) »Han kommer.» (Jyväskylä.) Lycka. (Helsingfors skär.)Vid Hirsala. (Esbo skär.) Lyx. (Helsingfors.)Svaga själar. (Saarijärvi.) Ett godt samvete. (Borgå skär.) Frost. (Rautalampi.)

After Cronstadt the most important naval station on the Baltic

H[elsingfors] is the largest and handsomest town of Finland; the broad streets, consisting of houses painted externally yellow and green, intersect at right angles, and there are several fine public squares. Of the public buildings, the most striking are the residence of the governor, the senate-house, and the university buildings.

Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the people (1863)

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Oblivion

OBLIVION, n. The state or condition in which the wicked cease from struggling and the dreary are at rest. Fame's eternal dumping ground. Cold storage for high hopes. A place where ambitious authors meet their works without pride and their betters without envy. A dormitory without an alarm clock.

Ambrose Bierce: The devil's dictionary

Black Beetles in Amber
Can Such Things Be?
Cobwebs from an Empty Skull
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 1
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce — Volume 2: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales
A Cynic Looks at Life
The Damned Thing 1898, From "In the Midst of Life"
The Devil's Dictionary
Famous Modern Ghost Stories (as Contributor)
Fantastic Fables
The Fiend's Delight
The Lock and Key Library The most interesting stories of all nations: American (as Contributor)
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
The Parenticide Club
Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories
Shapes of Clay
A Son of the Gods and A Horseman in the Sky
Write It Right A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Everlasting salvation

"Lord!" he said, "when you sell a man a book you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue--you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night--there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean. Jiminy! If I were the baker or the butcher or the broom huckster, people would run to the gate when I came by--just waiting for my stuff. And here I go loaded with everlasting salvation--yes, ma'am, salvation for their little, stunted minds--and it's hard to make 'em see it. That's what makes it worth while--I'm doing something that nobody else from Nazareth, Maine, to Walla Walla, Washington, has ever thought of. It's a new field, but by the bones of Whitman it's worth while. That's what this country needs--more books!"

Christopher Morley: Parnassus on Wheels

The Haunted Bookshop
In the Sweet Dry and Dry
Kathleen
Mince Pie
Parnassus on Wheels
Pipefuls
Plum Pudding Of Divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned
Shandygaff
Songs for a Little House
Where the Blue Begins

Friday, June 6, 2008

Helsingfors stands in a very romantic situation

"Swedish dress of 1778"

Having passed several large lakes, with which the country abounds, and crossed the frozen surface of a bay of the Gulf of Finland, we arrived on the ensuing morning at Helsingfors, which stands in a very romantic situation, upon a rising shore, near several rocks and huge fragments of granite.

Agreeably to an invitation from the governor of Helsingfors, to whom we applied for further information respecting our passage across the Gulf of Bothnia, we repaired in the evening to a ball: the gentlemen and ladies all wore the new Swedish dress; and amused themselves chiefly with minuets and English country-dances. The company were very polite and attentive to us, and several accosted us in French.

William Coxe: Travels Into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark.. (1792)

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Wipe you feet, dear

HEAR and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were wild. The Dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild--as wild as wild could be--and they walked in the Wet Wild Woods by their wild lones. But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.

Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn't even begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horseskin, tail-down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, 'Wipe you feet, dear, when you come in, and now we'll keep house.'

Ruyard Kipling: Just So Stories